TANCRED, SIR THOMAS (1808-80), the 7th baronet, belonged to an ancient English family which held its lands at Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, in the time of the Conqueror, and in crusading days gave Sicily some of its counts and kings. Educated at Merton College, Oxford, he graduated B.A. (1830) with distinction, and was a fellow (1832-40). He was deeply interested in social reforms, and in a report which he made in 1841 to the children's employment commission on the conditions of child labour in collieries and ironworks in the west of Scotland he gave evidence of wide human sympathy. Incidentally he recommended the eight-hour day and better housing, and proposed that educational and religious establishments should be a charge on wealth accruing from the increase of population. In 1839 Tancred married Jane, daughter of Prideaux John Selby, and in 1844 he succeeded to the title. In 1851, with his family, he came to Canterbury, where he remained for a few years, taking up the Malvern hills station in 1852 with his brother H. J. Tancred (q.v.) and Ashburton station in 1853. He returned to England to educate his family and, coming back to New Zealand in 1872, rented a place at Raukapuka, Woodbury. About 1880 he moved to the North Island, making his home at Clareville, Wairarapa. Tancred died on 7 Oct 1880, and his widow on 15 Nov 1901.

Cycl. N.Z., iii (p); Acland; The Times, 13 Oct 1880.

Reference: Volume 2, page 184

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